Rescuers found five more bodies on the capsized Costa Concordia cruise ship on Tuesday, bringing the overall death toll to 11, Italy’s ANSA news agency said.
All the five victims, four men and a woman, were wearing life jackets.
The grim discovery was made shortly after Italian Navy specialists used explosives to blow up holes in the ship’s hull in order to speed up the search.
Twenty-three people are still listed as missing, ANSA said.
Environment Minister Corrado Clini said in an interview with Canale 5 that there was still a chance to find survivors onboard the sunken ship, “but we must hurry up.”
The Costa Concordia, carrying 4,200 passengers, capsized after hitting rocks off the coast of Isola del Giglio on Friday night.
Captain Francesco Schettino, 52, claimed that the ship hit a rock formation that had not appeared on nautical charts and had not been picked up by the ship's navigation systems.
However, Italy’s Corriere della Sera daily said on Monday the captain steered the Costa Concordia toward the island to please the vessel’s head waiter, who was born on Giglio.
Schettino is suspected of multiple manslaughter and abandoning a ship in distress and faces up to 15 years in prison, Prosecutor Francesco Verusio said.
Italian dailies, Il Fatto Quotidiano and Corriere della Sera published on Thursday a transcript of a telephone conversation between Coast Guard Capt. Gregorio De Falco and Schettino, in which the captain was repeatedly ordered to “go back on board” the ship in distress.
“Schettino? Listen, Schettino, there are people trapped in the ship… You get on board and tell me how many people there are. Understand? I’m recording this conversation, Captain Schettino,” De Falco says.
The captain replies that the ship is listing at the moment. He also said he was in a lifeboat and was coordinating the rescue from there.
“Get on that prow of the boat using the pilot ladder and tell me what can be done, how many people there are and what their needs are. Now!” De Falco shouts. “Perhaps you saved yourself from the sea, but I'll make you pay for this, damn it”
However, it is unclear from the record whether the captain returned to the crippled ship or not.
